Video: Man builds Hobbit house out of balloons

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By:StaffMetro Canada Published on

If you love party paraphernalia and J.R.R. Tolkien, you’ll be fantasizing about this — a replica of a hobbit hole made from 2,600 balloons. Jeremy Telford, 34, spent 40 hours over three days inflating the balloons using a hand pump.

Thanks to an understanding wife, the Tolkien fan was able to build the shiny structure in his living room.

“After three days we let the kids demolish it for another two. They were sad when it was finally time to reclaim the living room for living,” Telford said.

The artist explains ...

Passion for fantasy at an early age. “I have been a Tolkien fan ever since reading The Hobbit in junior high school. It opened a whole new genre of books to me and fantasy quickly became my favourite.”

Planning. “I’ve been wanting to build something from The Hobbit for a while now. My wife and I sat down and picked out a few days to set aside for the build. We figured out how to get most of the furniture out of our living room and planned out how to build around the rest.”

18th-century inspiration. “I spent a few hours Googling 18th-century English furniture to try to get a style to work from. From there I designed the layout and estimated the number of balloons it would take to make the sculpture.”

Capturing the moment. “When the day came, we set up the camera to take pictures every 18 seconds for a time-lapse video. My three children, aged seven, five and two, helped. The older kids soon learned to wait for the click of the camera before moving through the living room to get to the kitchen. The youngest didn’t understand and instead ‘helped’ me throughout the build.”